I really like the rides I went on Amtrak through the Columbia Gorge from Pendleton to Portland. Comfy and fun to walk around. I was in my mid to late 20s then. I road a Greyhound a few times from Roseburg Oregon to places where my big brother lived like K-Falls, and to my sisters in Medford. I was little and enjoyed that a lot. I've flown a few times, the longest and most boring and tiring was from Portland to Hawaii by way of Seattle. I guess my trip about 2 years ago from our tiny airport to Oakland, then to Phoenix, and back in 2 weeks was the worst as I had a 5 hour layover. Oh man I nearly forgot, that was in 202o when our election was stolen, horrible time all around. I as staying with old friends that turned out to be democrats, nevermind the rest, LOL!! Well, my only salvation was the walks I took in the evening around the really nice Modular Home park, and there were tons of people for Trump, I mean tons!! My "friends" were invited to those parties but wouldn't go of course
Jake and I went on a bus tour to Cherokee, N.Carolina about 35 years ago. It was a gambling casino, Bibgo. Jake won a couple hundred, I won nothing.
Only bus I've riden on in last 58 years was a charter to a cassino to play Bingo. I t was fun. But I agree with you Von about buses in general.
I will say that buses are (or can be) far more comfortable today than the Greyhound buses I remember from the 1960s and 1970s. When we travel by train to Washington, DC, or Virginia, we drive as far as South Portland, Maine. From there, we can sometimes catch a train, but sometimes we'll go by bus as far as Boston, where we catch the train. Those buses are reasonably comfortable.
Long ago I went on a church trip flying to San Francisco, California followed and a bus trip from there to Los Angeles. The bus ride was the least enjoyable but I got to see Napa Valley and Yosemite and more. The last part was another bus ride to the Grand Canyon. It took so long that we got there at sunset and drove back the next day without seeing much.
We always found the bus tours comfortable. There is even a restroom on board but you are encouraged to wait till schedualed stops which are generally adequate.
I took a bus tour around Gettysburg battlefield [does that count] ? Anyway, I was told that it was the best way to see it. So I did, the tour-guide was great, and really knew the place, what happened here & then over there, etc & so-on. I bought a book with which you could follow along as he spoke, then read more in-depth later. It really was quite a tour ! I stayed that night in a motel, that was ahem ... rumored to be haunted. Personally I do not believe in such things, which I suppose explains why I slept like a baby that night. The owner/clerk seemed surprised the next morning @ the "free" continental breakfast bar It seems every other guest had some-sort of "experience" during the night.
Yes, I have taken several bus tours, all out of the country. It's a great way to see the highlights of a country so you know what you want to see more of next time. I've enjoyed meeting people of all ages and nationalities on the trips and have made some lasting friendships with other people of all ages on the bus. On one trip to Morocco, I got to be good friends with a teenage girl whose grandmother wasn't very adventurous. She and I did some exploring together. Yes, you have to adjust yourself to a schedule, but a lot of the stress is taken out of the trip. Will I miss my bus? Will I have to carry my bag up four flights of stairs? Will I have to stand in line for hours to get into a popular site? No, no and no. It's all taken care of. Also, frequently you get to go to out-of-the-way attractions you likely wouldn't have seen on your own. I appreciate tours even more as I get older, with less mobility.
I'm in part of Virginia where both Revolutionary War and Civil War battles were fought. When I was looking for a home here I discovered that nearly every place that existed back then "used to be a Civil War hospital." Every...single...one...of...them. Dunno about ghosts.
How about train tours? Skip over the kayaking if that's a little too much for us oldies: These kids make it look truly exhausting, but since they do sell senior discount tickets bopping trails in day packs is probably entirely optional. You might need to be able-bodied though. Easy crossing from Michigan if you have your EDL or passport. Or we also have Pere Marquette 1225 doing its North Pole Express excursions: https://michigansteamtrain.com/north-pole-express/
I like the idea of the train tour the best, @Jacob Petersheim , although when I lived in Idaho, I had a kayak, and my friend , Pat, and I used to go kayaking on the lakes up there a lot in the summer. She lived way out in the country, even further than I did, and there was a small lake hidden in the woods near her house, and that was a favorite place for us to go kayaking. I had one of the sit-on-top kind of kayaks, so I didn’t have to try and get in and out of the little seat that regular kayaks have, and we could easily take out 2 kayaks in the back of my Mazda pickup. When I went with Robin to Hawaii, i had a week bus pass, and I rode the regular city bus every day while my daughter was at work. The bus went all over Waikiki, out to Diamond Head crator, and to Pearl Harbor, where we could see the memorial there. I took a different route each day and rode the whole route and b ack to my hotel again. Even though it was not an actual bus tour , the bus driver was like a tour guide and he would tell us about everything we were passing, so I guess a lot of other people were riding the bus just to see the island like I was doing.
I have done the Agawa in winter and fall. I was old then, too, and you did not have to go hiking or anything. You could just wait till the train made the return trip finding only the adventure you wanted.